Dallas, Texas – Day 1

Ah… The Dallas trip. That’s my maiden visit to the land of opportunity and I’m one hundred percent sure it wouldn’t be my last. I loved almost everything about the place! The people! The stores! The buildings! The TV channels! The weather! And best of all, the food! I’m pretty convinced you can’t find any food there that doesn’t taste good. At least, we didn’t find any.

But the flight halfway across the globe sure wasn’t an easy one. We had to take a seven-hour flight to Tokyo before making a thirteen-hour connecting flight from there. That was a killer! Unless you could afford business class seats of course.

Compared to American airlines, the Japan airlines flight was a joyride. The service was great, the movies were interesting, and the food was simply awesome!

Lunch was seafood ragout with steamed rice, which was delicious. Best of all, it came with some sort of a metal heater to ensure that the food remained warm throughout. Whoa! That’s real thoughtful of them!

Even the sugar and creamer that came with the coffee were packaged together very nicely. That’s Japan airlines for ya. The Japanese certainly pay a lot of attention to detail!

I slept for most of the flight until we were reaching Tokyo. That’s when we saw the tip of Mount Fuji peeking through the cloak of clouds! Guess what? From now on I can actually tell people that I’ve seen Mount Fuji! What a bonus!

At the Tokyo narita international airport, we had to wait a couple of hours to make our connecting flight. There was some time to check out the airport and we spotted a number of interesting vending machines.

Häagen-dazs ice cream, anyone? And travellers’ insurance from a machine! That’s something new! Since we were in Japan, we definitely had to get a taste of some authentic Japanese food even for the very brief period that we were there.

My tempura shrimp udon came in a huge bowl with a really generous serving. The udon was the silkiest and smoothest I ever had – it simply slid down the throat! As I slurped it down greedily, I made a mental note that I’m not going to eat any udon in Singapore anymore.

Here’s another sign that the Japanese love their things pretty. Even the paper napkins had been cut in a nice zig-zag pattern!

Finally, it’s time for the most dreadful flight of a lifetime. Don’t get me wrong. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to go to America. But the truth can’t be denied – American airlines is horrible! The thirteen-hour flight was a really uncomfortable one with the cramped seats, arranged 2-5-2 so they looked like this:

…
Xx xxxxx xx
Xx xxxxx xx
Xx xxxox xx
Xx xxxxx xx
Xx xxxxx xx
…

With me in the “o”. There’s barely any leg space and it makes me wonder how an average American can fit in there when Asians already have much difficulty. The poor in-flight service didn’t make the flight any more pleasant. Flight attendants were aged 40 and above and looked as though they would rather be some place else. Food and beverages were served grudgingly, and I didn’t notice a single smile throughout the entire thirteen-hour flight. Chiara Caselli nudebase.com

Thankfully the food was decent. I barely slept though, and got really restless at one point. Then I realised I was missing a bear companion. When travelling abroad I always carried a good luck charm in the form of a bear. So I flipped through the in-flight catalogue and got myself a cuddly buckaroo teddy bear! Yay!

Eventually, we reached Dallas, got the rental car and made our way to the hotel. I thought the flight would never end! It felt like an eternity! Argh!!!

The first thing I noticed about Dallas was of course the cold weather. And the roads, they were wide. It seemed as though everyone owned a car because I rarely saw any cabs or buses on the roads. At one point we even spotted a couple of people in their car wearing cowboy hats! This was Texas after all!

Neon signs and advertisement boards lined either side of the roads, and there were the familiar McDonald’s restaurants and target department stores that I only heard of in TV shows.

We had barbeque at a restaurant called pappas bar-b-q, since 1967! I absolutely loved the bright neon sign and the huge white signboard that had the daily specials. Do they have someone climbing up ladders to change the words everyday?

Loved the huge cow too! Do you see it?

The restaurant was very spacious and the style seemed very classic-texan. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if I spotted any cowboys having their dinner there!

The set meal I ordered consisted of barbecued chicken with potato on the side. I thought it would be whipped potato that comes in one of those little cups, but the potato serving was gargantuan! See how it compares with my phone? It could BE a whole meal on its own! And it was delicious! The guy recommended having cheese on top and it was real good. The Americans really know how to enjoy their food! We took a quick glance around the place and noticed we were the skinniest people around.

The barbecued chicken was simply awesome! I have no idea how they did it but the sauce was too damn good! I had never tasted anything that even came close! Argh! Take me back to America, please! I wanna have hiro’s teleportation powers! (if you watch nbc’s latest TV series, heroes, you would know what I’m rambling about. This new series trumps lost any day.)

Here’s another testament to the generous food portions served in America. The pink lemonade drink that I ordered came in a glass that’s as tall as a regular ketchup bottle! I was shocked! It was a regular-sized drink I had, but it’s already bigger than the large-sized drinks we have in Singapore! I wonder how a large-sized drink would look like in America.

Back at the hotel, I checked out their vending machine. Something caught my attention. Ding dongs! I read (or heard) about this American snack so many times before but had no idea what it was like! Of course I had to try it for myself.

The ding dongs came in a packet of two. Each one was round, about three inches across and one inch in height. It is basically a chocolate cake with white cream oozing out when you bite into it. Mmm… Yummy! Even something that came out of a vending machine could taste so good!

And that was the first night in Dallas. The TV channels at the hotel were great. It meant I could watch shows like Prison Break, lost, South park, heroes, the amazing race first-hand without having to wait a day to download them off the web. Awesome!

an american friend was telling me that american airline companies are stuck with ugly, old stewardess because of union regulations. some european airlines have such regulations too, not to discriminate old and ugly people. hehehe~

haha i don’t actually have a problem with old flight attendants (i’m not a guy anyway so i don’t care whether or not they are attractive). but it does seem that the older they are, the more crappy the service gets. i think asian airlines are a safe bet though.

Hey Cobalt Paladin, what a unique nick you have! Wow I sure am glad to hear from a fellow Heroes fan! There aren’t too many in Singapore. Our little island is mostly obsessed with another little island.

Hiro is adorable! I don’t really have a favourite hero yet, although I do like the cheerleader. And Mohinder is one beautiful man!

Isn’t America the most obese nation in the world? They should really consider reducing their food portions! I finished half the food I ordered most of the time when I was there. The cold weather somehow made us feel hungry so we ate quite a bit. I haven’t weighed myself since I returned but I’m pretty sure I gained some. Argh!

Was doing a search for authentic Tex Mex cuisine in the Buffalo,NY area and came across your site and it made me a bit homesick. I was born and raised in the Dallas Ft Worth area and spent my whole life there until recently moving to Buffalo and now I can’t find anything that resembles the mexican food I have been eating my whole life. I am glad you had a good experience in my home town and that you got to taste some of the best food in the world IMO. Good luck to you and I hope you get to visit Dallas again.If you do, I would suggest you try Luna De Nocha in North Dallas and Uncle Julio’s too. Next time you are there also try some BBQ ribs at Spring Creek

Hey Don, I’m with you that tex-mex food is among the best in the world. Thanks for the recommendations! I do wish to make a trip to Dallas again some day. It holds special meaning for me, being the first and only city I’ve visited in the US.

I hope you would check out my posts on the remaining of the trip. There are many more colourful photographs of the food.

Oh, I checked them all out and even recognized many of the places you took photos of. The cool looking building with the mideval castle look is the courthouse in downtown dallas and I have passed it many times. It almost looks like if the Judge rules against you there they might take you to the dungeon downstairs.
I am glad I was able to live through your pics vicariously and get a quick glimpse of my old stomping grounds

As for obesity, we certainly have plenty of “big uns” here. I am blessed with a high metabolism and can eat the big portions and still keep my slender build

I love your website and learn a lot of information about Taiwan and Japan which is our next trip in October.
I was in Spore last year so thank you for posting some notes about your country, I missed that place.

I am a Filipino American who lives in Houston, Texas and who have lived here for 20 plus years.
Anyhow thank you for visiting Tejas, please next time visit Houston, Austin and San Antonio!